He Pope Francisco met today in a wonderful atmosphere The Sistine Chapel Near 200 artists from all over the world, whom he asked not to forget poor because they too “need art and beauty” and that they “interpret their silent cry”.

“Before I say goodbye, I must say one more thing that is close to my heart. I would like to ask you not to forget the poor, the favorites of Christ, in every way in which man is poor today. Even the poor need art and beauty,” Francis told writers, artists, singers and other artists who also came from Spain, Mexico, Argentina and Brazilamong others.

Francisco recalled that “some people experience very severe forms of deprivation of life and for this reason need it more. They usually don’t have a voice to be heard” and then they were asked to “interpret their silent cry”.

I wish that your labors are worthy of the men and women of this earth and that they glorify God, who is the Father of all, whom everyone seeks, even through art,” he concluded, and then greeted those present one at a time, just a few days after being discharged from the hospital for an operation to remove a hernia of the abdomen.

In his long speech, the Pope also urged them to “flee from the inspiring force of that supposed artificial and superficial beauty that is common today and is often an accomplice of the economic mechanisms that give rise to the world.” inequalities” and that “this is false cosmetic beauty, makeup that hides rather than reveals.”

He thanked the artists for being “also guardians of the true religious feeling, sometimes trivial or commercialized”. “In terms of being visionaries, guardians, a critical conscience, I feel that you are allies in many things that are close to my heart, such as protecting human life, social justice for the least, caring for our common home, everything we feel like brothers,” he pointed out.

“Art can never be an anesthetic; it gives peace, but does not dull the conscience, but awakens it. You artists often try to penetrate even the underworld. human condition, abysses, dark parts. We are not only light, and you remind us of this; but it is necessary to shed the light of hope into the darkness of humanity, individualism and indifference. Help us see the light, the beauty that saves,” he said.

Faced with a time he defined as “ideological media colonization and torn conflicts,” the pope asked that artists cultivate “the principle of harmony to inhabit our world more.”